Adopt-a-Highway Program Draws a Crowd of Backers

Dear Street Smart:

I’ve noticed signs on a number of freeways which say “Adopt-a-Freeway” and list some sponsor’s name underneath. Will you please explain more about this concept? It sounds intriguing.

Jerry Page Newport Beach The state began the Adopt-a-Highway program in 1989, and it has become so popular that there is now a waiting list of individuals, businesses and service organizations wanting to volunteer to pick up litter along freeways and highways. A few freeway stretches are even sponsored by celebrities, including Bette Midler.

Under the program, sponsors adopt a two-mile stretch of freeway or state highway on a first-come, first-served basis. The California Department of Transportation supplies all the equipment needed for the cleanup, as well as gloves and the neon orange vests Caltrans workers wear to alert motorists to their presence.

In its infancy, Adopt-A-highway sponsors were mostly college fraternities, civic clubs and religious groups. Most did the cleanup as a public service project. But in recent years, corporate sponsorships have become 43% of the total statewide. It is common for them to contract out the cleanup work.

Caltrans erects the 5-foot by 9-foot recognition signs you see along the roadside. Critics argue that the proliferation of these signs is aesthetically displeasing and tantamount to free advertising for corporate sponsors. But the policy remains to acknowledge all sponsors.

Dear Street Smart:

In Rancho Santa Margarita, Empresa connects Santa Margarita Parkway with Antonio Parkway. There are five stop signs on Empresa, one for each intersection. There is very little, if any, traffic at any of these intersections and no need for stop signs on Empresa. Why are they there?

When I called the county six months ago or more, they said they would investigate. I doubt it was done. Certainly in the future, five to 20 years hence, they may be necessary. But not now.

Jack Lowell Coto de Caza When this particular area of Rancho Santa Margarita began developing about five years ago, housing and other construction was progressing so rapidly that county traffic engineers and planners from the Rancho Santa Margarita Co. anticipated large volumes of traffic, said Raphael Ochoa, chief traffic engineer for Orange County.

Stop signs were erected as an interim measure to allow traffic patterns to establish themselves and to determine if traffic signals would be needed.

“I remember people used to stand in line to purchase a home. They’d camp out so they could get a home,” Ochoa said. “We anticipated that, within a very short while, we’d have units built and occupied and people needing to travel these roads.”

“When we hit the big downturn in the economy, the traffic volumes we anticipated did not materialize,” Ochoa said. “So we did not install the traffic signals and we allowed the stop signs to remain.”

County traffic engineers did investigate the intersections on Empresa several months ago to determine if accidents were a problem. They concluded that there was no safety concern, Ochoa said. The stop signs remained to maintain that level of safety, he said.

Traffic engineers will go back to Empresa again to determine if one or more of the stop signs can be removed, Ochoa said. The results of this study should be complete in about three weeks. Ochoa invites you to call his office at (714) 834-3484 to find out more about the status of these stop signs.

Mark your calendars. The Orange County Transportation Authority’s Measure M Citizens Oversight Committee will hold its annual public hearing at 6 p.m. June 8 in the Orange County Hall of Administration Planning Commission Room, 10 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana.

The committee is composed of Orange County residents who monitor expenditures of revenue from Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for traffic relief projects approved by voters in 1990. Orange County cities have received more than $30 million to date for local projects and maintenance of streets and roads.

The public hearing will provide an overview of the nine-member committee’s responsibilities and an update on the status of Measure M. The public will have an opportunity to comment after the overview.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to Caroline Lemke, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.